I have been thinking of learning a Romance language or perhaps Japanese, but I can't make up my mind. I speak English and a Slav language thatwas influenced by Latin, so Romance languages would be easier. Even then, I can't decide between them and would welcome advice.>ItalianPros: I would be able to access authentic recipes, access Italian media - especially Italian comics that do not get translated to English, and it is a very good jumping off point to learning Spanish later on.Cons: Relatively small population of Italian speakers, less resources, and there are less countries where Italian will let you get by compared to French or Spanish

>FrenchPros: Access to French media, especially comics many of which take a long time to be translated, pantydropper.Cons: spelling is almost as much of a mess as the English one

>SpanishPros: Lots of learning resources, could be helpful in day to day life in the U.S., spoken in many countries, good springboard to learning Italian later on, access to Spanish media.Cons: a lot of Spanish media is available in English, native Spanish speakers seem to have better command of English than French or Italians.

>JapanesePros: Access to Japanese media, access to authentic recipes, access to Japanese clothing and art supply stores, good amount of learning resources.Cons: Alien writing system, "spelling" is kind of a mess, more difficult than romance languages

In addition, I was hoping to visit all of the countries that these languages originate from. Japanese and French are not as good with English as Italians and Spaniards. At the same time, I have heard that Japanese and Italians are more patient and helpful towards foreigners trying to speak local languages than the French or Spanish.

I speak Swedish and English.I guess the main languages I'm learning are Latin, New Testament Greek, Biblical Hebrew, and French. Fortunately, learning dead languages is pretty painless because there are no real requirements for speaking/writing, but on the other hand my linguistic and grammatical knowledge outstrips my reading ability. French is not going so well, but I'm also not very motivated.

>>907I don't have a lot of good advice, but my personal opinion is that you should pick a language based on interest rather than difficulty.

>>918I'm currently using French for Reading by Karl C. Sandberg and Eddison C. Tatham. I like the structure (very brief grammatical explanations followed by a lot of practice sentences) and wish there were books in other languages I'm learning that are as good as this.

Tried to learn German back in 2013-14, but got bored of it. Didn't help that I was only using Duolingo to study, and it got tiring trying to keep caught up.

A few years later I tried learning Japanese. Kana was the only easy part. Grammar wasn't too hard, though, I used Tae Kim and I could follow along. But kanji and vocabulary were a nightmare. It got to the point where I was spending an hour and a half of my free time every day studying flashcards.
Then I realized, why am I even studying Japanese? I might into Japanese media a little (mostly games), but all the stuff I've seen/read/played has been translated anyhow.

Lately I've been learning Latin off and on. Hell of a lot easier than I thought. Only problem is, there's no use for it outside of academic stuff.

currently learning spanish, as most if not all of the people around me speak it. i plan on learning russian to access its literature in its original form; japanese because i'm a weeb and it would be nice to not need subtitles if i visit japan; hebrew because it's related to arabic (which i already speak); and german because it's related to english.i remember reading something about how to choose languages to learn depending on need and relation to mother tongue.

i've been halfheartedly studying russian for a few years. motivation dropped off hard after i left uni and didnt have a structured class anymore. i have couple guys online who are up to groupstudy if i can ever arrange it.
finnish would be really cool, plus i could then access ylilauta, but there are damn near no resources out there.
lately i've had an interest in sign language, i think it would be fun. i don't know any deaf or mute people so i would have to practice on video online, but i'm sure there's groups for that.